Diamond Clematis Strip

Before going to Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand in 1978,1 spent a great deal of time knitting counterpane swatches from books in my collection and from the library. This particular pattern I found in the nineteenth-century publication The Young Ladies Journal. During my trip, I was delighted to find this pattern used in a counterpane in the Van Dieman Museum in Hobart, Tasmania. That version had the double-cable panel worked on either side of the clematis strip. Later, in the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch, New Zealand, and in the Welsh Folk Museum in Cardiff, Wales, I saw counterpanes worked in the main diamond-strip pattern without the clematis and double-cable patterns.

This two-needle pattern is moderately difficult but excellent for teaching beginning knitters new skills. The diamond-strip pattern contains raised-leaf motifs in the center, which are created with yarn-overs and paired decreases. The unusual feather-and-fan pattern, worked in both an inset strip and in the border, increases on the front side of the work and decreases every row on the front and back sides.

If you use the double cable on either side of the clematis strip, the two patterns can be knitted at the same time. This will eliminate the need to sew the three pieces together.

Diamond Strip

Special Instructions:

"Follow pattern" means knit the knit stitches and purl the purl stitches as they face you. Purl the O of previous row.

Working from right to left, •work 1 single crochet in each of next 2 stitches, then work 3 double crochet stitches in next stitch*, repeat from *, being sure to follow the contour of the pattern as shown in the photo below.

Border Pattern

FEATHER SECTION

Special Instructions:

The pattern is worked on a multiple of 21 plus 3 stitches. The instructions in brackets should be repeated once for each 21 stitches.